squint steering wheel?

[PKLD]

Hi all - my mate has got a fiesta (55 plate with 20k miles) and he's asked me (being the one that supposedly knows about cars) if it matters than the steering wheel sits off centre?

So what causes this? there's no uneven tyre wear, it doesn't pull to the left but the steering wheel is 5-10degree off when going in a straight line.

answers please?

[MondeoMan1981]

Had its tracking / alignment done perhaps ?

[Eggman]

Could be somebody's changed a track rod end at some point and didn't get it perfectly straight when doing the alignment afterwards, or they might have had the steering wheel off for some reason and replaced it one spline out.

Either way, as long as it's not eating tyres or anything it shouldn't matter a jot apart from being slightly annoying to look at.

[PKLD]

Eggman said:

Could be somebody's changed a track rod end at some point and didn't get it perfectly straight when doing the alignment afterwards, or they might have had the steering wheel off for some reason and replaced it one spline out.

Either way, as long as it's not eating tyres or anything it shouldn't matter a jot apart from being slightly annoying to look at.

that's what is getting to him - i think it's just annoying him. but if general advice is that it's nothing mechanical faulty then it'll probably just be left until he needs tyres fitted

[busta]

Whilst the angle of the steering wheel has no immediate correlation to anything else, it would be nice to know how it got wonky in the first place. There must be a reason- steering wheel put on wrong splines, tracking done without it being centred first, new track rod ends/steering rack, bent track rod from hitting kerb, other suspension damage.

How longs has he had it? Might be that he/someone else has hit a kerb and knocked something out of alignment. Depending how long it's been like that there might not be any signs of uneven wear on the tyres yet.